Painting The Friend's Quote

Painting The Friend's Quote

Once upon a time, there were a brother and sister called Stuart and Petra.

They both lived with their parents at Granny Lodge in Surrey.

Stuart liked all his things in orange if he had a choice. Bright orange. Loud orange.

Petra liked all her things just as they came, but with a little shiny element added to them. She would stick on a diamond sticker or two or add some polish to the items.

When Stuart and Petra’s things got lost, they could easily tell whose items they were.

One day, Petra was playing with her writing book and calligraphy set.

The ink was dark against the thick, rough paper. She was using a thick but smooth brush to paint the letters. She was writing a quote.

She enjoyed her calligraphy.

She looked up from the paper she was painting on and saw that Stuart had come in.

“Hello,” Stuart said. He looked over and added, “I see you are painting again. You won’t meet many friends if you sit at home and paint all day, will you?”

“Well,” Petra said, “I could invite someone to paint with me—or you could paint with me.”

“That’s true,” Stuart said.

He looked out of the window wistfully and said, “I wish I could go and meet a friend today. Do something.”

“Well,” Petra said, “why don’t you call or message someone and arrange to meet them?”

“I tried that already,” Stuart said. “No one wanted to come today.”

“Well, if you leave it until the very day, of course no one will come. They will already have plans, or their parents won’t be able to bring them at short notice.”

“Ask them about next week, Stuart. Then you can arrange everything and meet them next Saturday.”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “That’s what I will do.”

Then he thought for a moment. “What about today, though? I wanted to see someone today. I’m not exactly lonely—I’m just a little bored without an activity.”

“Well, you could ask Dad to plan some activities for the next few weeks with some friends. If you invite your friends to activities, they will invite you to activities too.”

“That takes a little time to do, but it will be fun planning all those good times. As for today, do you want to paint with me for a while? We can listen to some music and paint some quotes.”

“That sounds like fun,” said Stuart. “Let me go and ask Dad, and then I will come back and paint with you.”

Stuart asked his dad to plan some activities, and his dad said, “Sure, we can plan four weeks ahead, and that’s plenty.”

Then they made a list of whom to invite, the times of the activities and the things they would need.

Stuart and Petra then spent the afternoon painting quotes on the rough paper with the big brushes.

The following Saturday, Stuart woke up and said aloud, “I wonder what I should do today.”

Then he turned around and saw that his dad had placed a calendar beside his bed, with all the activities planned for that day and for the next four weeks.

Petra had also painted a quote for each week.

Stuart smiled. That was better. Today, he was playing volleyball tag with Craig and a group of others. Afterwards, he would have lunch with them all.

That was great!

Stuart realised how much fun he was going to have, all because he had planned it in advance.

If you want people to come out and play with you, you have to give them a little notice and plan ahead. There would be no more empty Saturdays for Stuart.

He would plan something for every weekend so that he would not feel sad and wistful for friends again.

Petra had placed a quote above Stuart’s bed:

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”

The End.

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